Product Description: The
Date-Rape Drug Personal Test Kit is a business-card-sized test
strip designed to reveal the presence of two of the most popular
date-rape drugs, gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and ketamine. Users
simply place a few drops of their drinks on the card's two test
circles. If either test circle turns blue, it's an indication
the drink could be tainted. The product sells nationwide for $1.25
per card, or $7 for 10 cards at convenience and grocery stores.

Start-Up: $150,000 cash and
up to $700,000 in donated time from Glover, Guerra and other
researchers working on the idea

Sales: Approximately
$250,000 in 2002; $7 million projected for 2003

The Challenge: Reaching
customers when your one-of-a-kind product lacks an established
network of distributors, wholesalers, retailers, catalogs,
manufacturer's sales agents or other methods to sell
through

Brian glover and francisco guerra knew people would want to buy
their innovative product-especially young women who enjoy the
nightlife scene. But without the support of bar and nightclub
owners who didn't want to call attention to any dangers
associated with their establishments, and without a ready
distribution channel in place, these entrepreneurs faced their
share of obstacles getting the product in front of customers.
Here's a rundown of what worked for them:

Steps to
Success1. Check out your initial
impulses. Glover and Guerra's first marketing idea
was to sell the product as a promotional item to liquor companies.
According to Glover, "On average, most large liquor
manufacturers like Budweiser and Bacardi distribute over 500
million coasters each per year for advertising purposes."

Guerra adds, "We thought liquor companies would see our
product as a great public service, since date rape involved the
liquor industry." But the liquor companies didn't show any
interest-and the inventors' efforts with pharmaceutical
companies also led nowhere. Although those first attempts
didn't succeed, they were still worth a try. Had they worked,
the inventors could have used an outlet that would have sold
millions of their products. The moral? It never hurts to aim high
where you can make the most money.

2. Study the target
customers. When Glover and Guerra's publicity
generated responses on their Web site, the results helped them home
in on their target customers. "It was obvious the people most
interested in the product were young women and mothers of young
women," Guerra says. "We knew those were the customers
who wanted to buy our product."

3. Choose a target market.
Once marketers know who the customer is, they can determine where
those customers make certain purchases. "We wanted to have a
product in a location where women make a last-minute or emergency
purchase at night, and we felt convenience stores were a prime
market," says Guerra. Another option for the inventors was to
sell the product through drugstores. But in the end, convenience
stores proved to be the better option-there are more locations, and
they stay open later at night.

4. Generate a positive
story. Retail-store buyers are always reluctant to take
on a new product, so inventors need to prove that customers will
want to buy their product. "We've found that three out of
five young adults will tell you they know someone who has been [the
victim of] date rape," Guerra says. "There are close to
150 stories per day about date rape in publications around the
country. We have been able to get [hundreds of] stories published
[about our product], and when we went to trade shows, buyers were
aware of those stories."

5. Make sure the product is ready to
go. Retail-store buyers can look at a product
they're familiar with and imagine how it will be packaged and
sold in stores. They're less able to do that with products
they've never sold before. Glover and Guerra sold their product
on their Web site for one year before their first big trade show,
the 2002 National Association of Convenience Stores in Orlando,
Florida. Luckily, the partners had the packaging, pricing and
product kinks all worked out before presenting the product to
buyers. That professionalism helped them land their first big
account: Circle K convenience stores.

6. Plan how you'll sell to the
market. Once Glover and Guerra had selected their target
customer and market channel, they wrote a business plan in early
2002. They researched trade shows, trade magazines, market outlets
and distribution methods before approaching the market. This kind
of preparation helped them determine the most cost-effective way to
introduce their product to the market.

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Inventors often do
best when their new product fits an emerging trend-before big,
established companies take over the market segment. Trade
magazines, which frequently depend on input from established
marketers, often only predict trends after they've begun. To
beat the crowd, check in periodically with a futurist, an expert
who looks past the obvious to predict what might happen tomorrow.
For more details, go online and visit the Association of Professional Futurists.

Another good resource is The Deviant's Advantage: How New Fringe Ideas
Create Mass Markets (Crown Business Publications) by
Ryan Matthews and Watts Wacker. These futurists show how they look
at the market to uncover where innovation often starts. The book,
which includes numerous examples, explains the process a deviant
thinker goes through to discover the perfect product and get it to
the market.

A word of caution: Logical, sequential thinkers will have
trouble adjusting to the book's wild and unpredictable style,
which is a path futurists often follow.

Lessons Learned

1. Don't be easily
discouraged. Even experienced marketers have trouble
introducing a new type of product. Retail-store and distributor
buyers are always afraid of making a mistake, and you might have to
approach them several times before they'll listen seriously to
your sales proposition.

2. Distributors will make room for a
winning product. One of the confusing factors about the
market for inventors is that every buyer wants to carry the next
hot product, yet they also fear handling new products. The reason
for the contradiction? Only one out of hundreds of new products
will become the next big thing.

Your job is to show the buyer your product has a chance. If you
generate publicity, find success by selling the product at fairs
and shows, acquire endorsements from people who are important to
the market or highlight a success story, buyers will listen.

3. Understand your target customer and
the distribution channel. Most inventors who succeed
have learned virtually everything about their target customer and
market, or they've aligned with someone who does. From a retail
buyer's perspective, inventors come and go in a big hurry. So
expect them to be skeptical of your staying power, especially if
you don't seem to know the ins and outs of your chosen
distribution channel.

4. Watch your money. Your
money will run out quickly if you have to move from one
distribution channel to another. You may need new packaging, and
you'll definitely need to attend trade shows regularly to meet
new distributors. This all costs money, and you won't be able
to attack a second market if your money runs out. Inventors should
always spend their money slowly, but this is particularly true when
a product lacks an established distribution channel.

5. Big companies are a hard sell in
tough times. One mistake inventors often make is to
assume that a big company is an easy sale. In reality, just the
opposite is true. Big companies move slowly and are rarely the
first ones to take on an innovative product, primarily because so
many people need to approve each major decision. And that's in
good economic times. When the economy slows, big companies are more
interested in cutting costs, which typically means little
innovation occurs.

FEED YOUR NEED

Are you stuck
figuring out how to make a prototype or the design of your final
product? Do you need stronger or lower-cost materials? The Thomas Register of American
Manufacturers, available at most larger libraries and
online, is the place to look. This resource, composed of more than
20 huge volumes filled with product information, provides
information on most suppliers for virtually every type of
component, from cheap fasteners to million-dollar production
equipment. Many of the companies have even included a product
catalog in the register.

To find what you're looking for,
search under the appropriate category, then call the companies and
explain what you need. If they can't help, they'll most
likely refer you to someone who can. Don't just call one or two
firms-call them all until you've determined who fits your
needs best.

Don Debelak is the author of Think Big: Make Millions
From Your Ideas. Send questions to dondebelak34@msn.com.